1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a multimedia program editing and presenting system and, more particularly, to a method and system for permitting a user to edit a multimedia program or scenario with a higher degree of freedom by simplified operations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A multimedia computer program or a scenario defines the details of a multimedia application. In editing a multimedia program, the user selects one out of the displayed media materials to assign to a layout window or frame either provided by a prepared template or specified by the user if the selected media material is of a visual type (i.e., any of the video, picture and text types) and to assign to a desired scenario time (or a time measured from the beginning of the scenario) to start replaying the selected material if the selected media material is of the audio type. This process is repeated till a desired scenario is obtained.
The present invention especially relates to a method and system for editing a scenario by using materials of a visual type and frames (or windows) where the materials are to be displayed.
Japanese unexamined patent publication No. Hei 7-287,646 discloses a scenario editing/presenting method and device therefor. A desired number of frames can be defined for a time period from the start time to the end time of each material. This provides full flexibility in defining frames. However, for each of the frames, the user has to specify a start time, the coordinates of the frame position and the size (width, height) at the start time, an end time, the coordinates of the frame position and the size (width, height) at the start time, and the start time.
In some multimedia presentation systems, a template of a frame layout is provided so that the user can create a multimedia application by putting materials in frames that have been provided in the template. In such a system, it can be assumed that the material Ma is put into a frame at a time T0, defined in a scenario (hereinafter referred to as "scenario time"), and the scenario is played and then terminated at a time T1. In this case, if the position of the frame of the material Ma is changed from a first position to a second position at a time T1, even if the scenario time is turned back to T0, the position of the frame remains at the second position. This is because the frames of the system are not controlled in association with time.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a multimedia program editing and/or presenting method and system that enables a layout with a higher degree of freedom by simplified input operations.